BOOK PRESENTATION: CAMILLO BORGHESE. A ROMAN PRINCE IN THE AGE OF NAPOLEON
On Monday, April 20, at 6:00 PM, the Portico of Galleria Borghese will host the presentation of the volume Camillo Borghese. Un principe romano nell’epoca di Napoleone (Camillo Borghese: A Roman Prince in the Age of Napoleon). Part of Galleria Borghese Study Series, the book is edited by Lucia Calzona.
A son of an era of revolutions, Camillo Borghese (1775–1832) embodied the contradictions of his time through a life marked by dramatic choices and constant metamorphosis. He was a Jacobin prince who burned his family coats of arms in Piazza di Spagna in 1798, then became Napoleon’s brother-in-law through a turbulent marriage to Pauline Bonaparte, and finally served as Governor-General of the Transalpine Departments in Turin. Camillo moved through European history as a central protagonist, leaving behind a complex and controversial legacy.
His figure has long been overshadowed by the fame of Canova’s celebrated statue portraying his wife as Venus Victrix and by the painful sale of the Borghese archaeological collection to the French Emperor. However, behind the image of the indolent and spendthrift prince emerges a far more multifaceted character: an attentive patron, a passionate collector, and an administrator capable of surrounding himself with high-level collaborators.
This volume—curated by Lucia Calzona as part of Galleria Borghese Study Series—restores complexity to a biography too often reduced to a stereotype. Through original contributions by Francesco Leone, Andrea Merlotti, and Pier Ludovico Puddu, there emerges a portrait of a man in a perennial search for identity, torn between loyalty to his family roots and the allure of Napoleonic modernity, and between the necessity of dispersing his heritage and the obsession with rebuilding it. He was a Roman prince who sought to write his own chapter in the history of the arts, oscillating between loss and recovery, and between the Ancien Régime and a new world.
The event will feature speakers Francesca Cappelletti, Director of Galleria Borghese, Lucia Calzona, editor of the series, and Fernando Mazzocca, formerly of the University of Milan. The authors will also be in attendance.
Participation in the event is free of charge, but reservations are mandatory via this link.